Our Short-eared Owls are still around and this potentially bodes well and it would be great to see then stay and breed. Brenda took these images yesterday evening at the west end of the reserve.

Oh and I have not heard anything about Thursday and The One Show yet but will keep you posted.....

No news for today other the three Acrtic and 14 Common Terns up river and Garganey, Whimbrel and 21 Wheatears yeaterday.

Our cattle are dropping calves on an almost daily basis at the moment. This one was born on Satuday morning and Les captured the first moment of the mother bonding with its still sticky wet baby. One has also had twins so watch for much charging around once the calves find their legs!

Up on her legs in minutes....

Not a term of derision or a light hearted jibe at someone with wayward morning hair but me getting up close to some fresh seedheads of Coltsfoot along the bank by the Shooting Butts Hide. Almost the first to flower and now over for another year with just the newly emerging leaves to show that it was ever there. It gets it name from the shape of these leaves and their resemblance to the hoof of a horse. Why Colt was chosen…

Since the Predator Proof Fence went live in February and our successful sweep pushed three Foxes outside, we have been valiently trying to encourage the last one to do the same. 

With so many nests now being found we were getting worried that all our hard work would be in vain. However, I am pleased to say that the last one has now been enouraged to leave and fingers crossed, we now have 54 hectare Fox Free Zone.  If you…

Another lovely morning with sunshine and no cloud but it is blooming freezing out there in a cold northerly wind.

Watched the Lapwing closest to the Purfleet Hide turn her eggs several times yesterday and the males have been very diligent at chasing off the pair of Carrion Crows that regularly try to maraud the area.

(Chris Lowe)

(Les Harrison)

Three pairs of Mute Swan are now sitting on eggs out on the marsh with the fourth pair still contemplating things on the Purfleet Scrape. Hopefully by early May there will be lots of little fluffy white cygnets following proud parents around.

Standing guard with a watchful eye...

Birds moved through pretty quickly today and by mid-morning 31 Wheatears had been seen; by mid-afternoon only a couple were to seen. Additions to this mornings first flush were three Golden Plover, Little Ringed Plover, the not so elusive Garganey, Willow Warbler and three Reed Warblers. The Brown Rats now have several young and it was presumably one of these that met its end with Mr Kestrel yesterday.  Lot of Marsh F…

It is only 8am and we already have a good list for the marsh with seven Wheatears and a Whitethroat along the river wall, Sedge Warblers singing in the perimiter ditch, ten Curlew on Purfleet Scrape and eight Ruff on the MDZ Pools.   Looking good already!

Three of the Wheatear flock! (Andy Tweed)

Our Reed Buntings may have largely stopped singing now and are getting down to the hectic business of making sure that their other halves are catered for as they incubate the eggs. However that does not stop them looking at their best at the moment and this shot by Mark Vale shows this one of in a most favourable light! They are still coming to both the feeding stations and even to the small feeders just outside the shop…

Another fairly good day out on the marsh with thick fog early doors suggesting that if anything was moving through it may drop in for a visit if the weather cleared at all.  And that is exactly what happened with a handful of Sand Martins in the first light gloom becoming 40 Swallows, 20 Sand Martins and three House Martins as the the sun broke through. One minute they were not there and the next they dropped out of the…

With our Brown Rat friends finding the woodland feeders to their liking it was somewhat inevitable that some sort of predator would also find them equally appealing. Today the male Kestrel that is part of a pair on the nearby pylons struck while they were not giving their surroundings their full attention and alas it was no more! Having devoured some of it whilst there it carried the rest off for a more relaxed repast…

Yesterday morning in one of the bright spells, Jerry Hoare managed to get some footage of our mostly elusive pair of Garganey. They have been with us since late March now and the male is definitely getting a little amorous and has been seen chasing her around. It would be a real achievement to get Garganey breeding on the marsh. They seem to summer most years but it has been 12 years since we have seen a brood on the…

Wheatears have been a little scarce so far this spring so Russ Sherriff did well to get up close with this female bird earlier in the week. Given the upright stance and rich colouring on the breast it may even be tempting to suggest that she is of the Greenland race.  Hopefully lots more to come through as the next few weeks o spring pass by...

13-4-12

I had a count on Wednesday as I walked around the trail and I reckon that there are over 30 pairs of Little Grebe just on the circuit at the moment. As I said the other day, we had found our first nest but I am sure that a concerted look would reveal more close to the paths.  Giggling can be heard everywhere but they also do a very Water Rail-like 'kip' call which I reckon is either a contact call or an alarm. They seem…

With the wettest the reserve has ever looked in the spring and Channel 4 coming down to film our "terrible drought conditins" last Thursday, it was not at all surprising that we saw another day of squally downpours of just the 'right' sort of rain to actually make a difference and add even more of the wet stuff to our gloriously damp marsh!

The rate this is going on we could be the only reserve in the…

With squally showers today we persevered with keeping an eye on the marsh and managed to find a couple more Lapwing nests out on Purfleet Scrape while Mute Swans look to be settling in and Redshanks have progressed beyond the 'kissing' stage of things...

Migrant wise the Garganey were still present and at long last we picked them up from the end of the ramp along with our first Yellow Wagtails since the weekend…

Just a little plug for this great offer in our shop!  We have lots in stock!

Found my first Little Grebe nest of the year complete with a couple of pearly white eggs hidden away. Mum had already left the nest before we got there but was giggling nearby. You can see where she had hastily covered the eggs with weed before she slipped off.

Almost hidden! (by me)

Can you remember back to those heady days of March when the sun shone warmly on your back, bees buzzed and butters fluttered......?

No? Admittedly having a few troubles with that myself recently what with the almost constant driving rain, gusting wind and scudding clouds...

So please have some more butterflies from the end of March to remind of what we had nad what we have to come!

Peacock (Fred Roll)

Green-veined…

With another high tide we were keeping a special eye on the marsh this afternoon and a few waders did appear to seek shelter from the battering winds. Two flocks of Curlew eventually amalgamanted and became a single group of 35 while two Avocets dropped in for a while before heading back out the the River. No Oystercatchers today but five Ringed Plover joined the Little Ringeds on the Butts Scrape.

The Garganey were…

Black-tailed Godwit (Sam Shippey)

If you remember back to the 7th October we had a cute colour-ringed Stonechat on the reserve.

She had been ringed as a nestling in Norfolk at Weybourne and passed through the reserve on her way south for the winter. Where she actually spent those months we do not know but Noel has been back in touch to say that she arrived back on her natal grounds on the 1st April where hopefully she will find a settle down and have…

This immature male Kestrel has been causing some consternation with visiting birders as it has already grown three new black-tipped grey tail feathers, two of which protrude further than the others. It has also been remarked by several people that it appears bigger and bulkier than a 'normal' Kestrel.

Perhaps he felt like he could take on Fred Roll on this particular day given the beady look in his eye?!